Another GTX580 or wait?

W

Whisperfang

Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
860
It's getting to the point where a few of the games I play, I can't play at absolute max settings without going below 30fps. The problem is, I don't know if i should wait or get another 580 and do SLI. There are some things to consider and i'll outline those below.

1. My motherboard does NOT support SLI natively. But i've read over and over that the sli bios patch fixes that and it work on my board. (Asus P67)
2. The 580 only has 1.5GBs of vram. Now, i only game at 1920x1200 and no plans to change that any time soon due to space restrictions so it's not a huge issue but with more settings comes more memory.
3. Right now the games that am i running against the 30fps barrier with maxed out settings are Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. Do both of these have good SLI support?
4. And finally, i can get the 580 (gently used) for $409, does that make all this worth it, this late in the game?

Rest of my system specs:
Asus P67
i7 2600k @ 4.4GHz
16GB DDR 1600
Corsair HX620 (i'll have to upgrade this as well, will an HX850 do?)
Single GTX580
 
I game at the same res as you, and also have a 580, the same games I play @ fluid 60FPS per sec and have no problems..

Why are you maxing out the AA at that resolution anyway? 2x is perfectly fine, you can't even notice the difference if you have a play with the settings...

look,

Fully Ultra:
75562334.jpg


my settings:
90182436.jpg


42466557.jpg


Can you tell the difference?.. I mean honestly..

I don't get why people mindlessly Max out their settings when they could make a few adjustments and get 30+ fps boosts with no hit to visual quality at all.
 
Going SLI would be your best bet. After going multi-GPU you won't go back. It's like a drug.

What is your videocard memory usage at your settings with afterburner?
 
Laffles said:
I don't get why people mindlessly Max out their settings when they could make a few adjustments and get 30+ fps boosts with no hit to visual quality at all.
Click to expand...

+1, amen to that brother.
 
Laffles said:
I game at the same res as you, and also have a 580, the same games I play @ fluid 60FPS per sec and have no problems..

Why are you maxing out the AA at that resolution anyway? 2x is perfectly fine, you can't even notice the difference if you have a play with the settings...

look,

Fully Ultra:
[im]http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1899/75562334.jpg[/img]

my settings:
[im]http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6922/90182436.jpg[/img]

[im]http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4924/42466557.jpg[/img]

Can you tell the difference?.. I mean honestly..

I don't get why people mindlessly Max out their settings when they could make a few adjustments and get 30+ fps boosts with no hit to visual quality at all.
Click to expand...

Because when i own a top of the line GPU (and until the next generation hits, this card is still the fastest single GPU card) i want to max everything on that card.
 
I would rather spend that kind of money on a nice 120hz 3d vision capable monitor.

Whisperfang said:
Last i checked, this was [H]ardOCP... not SoftOCP. If you think wanting to max everything out is dumb, you're on the wrong website.
Click to expand...

The H stands for hardware, hardware overclockers comparison page. :rolleyes:
 
Whisperfang said:
Last i checked, this was [H]ardOCP... not SoftOCP. If you think wanting to max everything out is dumb, you're on the wrong website.
Click to expand...

Most people here have spent a lot of money on their systems, and push them to the limits/play the most demanding games. But it doesn't seem like you're being very realistic and are being mindless given the reasons you want to buy another 580, you're only gaming @ 1920x1200 for gods sake lol ;)

I've provided the screens to show you the difference in visuals between the two, and you've completely ignored them, please tell me the difference?

because you're pretty much saying that you're willing to spend $400 on a card so you can have visuals like the first screenshot, when there's no noticable difference between the two...
 
Last edited:
Laffles said:
Most people here have spent a lot of money on their systems, and push them to the limits/play the most demanding games. But it doesn't seem like you're being very realistic and are being mindless given the reasons you want to buy another 580, you're only gaming @ 1920x1200 for gods sake lol ;)

I've provided the screens to show you the difference in visuals between the two, and you've completely ignored them, please tell me the difference?

because you're pretty much saying that you're willing to spend $400 on a card so you can have visuals like the first screenshot, when there's no noticable difference between the two...
Click to expand...

Posts like this are actually what hardware overclockers comparison page are all about. :)
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
I would rather spend that kind of money on a nice 120hz 3d vision capable monitor.
Click to expand...

But this best case where a second would be the most beneficial at this resolution.

At this point you might as well wait and see that the AMD 7000 brings.
 
Adding another card for SLI does NOT give you extra VRAM. If you're looking for more VRAM for higher textures, get a 3gb card.
 
Buy another card, SLI them and get a 30" 2560x1600 monitor. I bought a single 6970 and then added a second and upgraded from 24" 1920x1200 to 2560x1600 and it is totally awesome. I play BF3 maxed (no MSAA) and it is totally smooth. 64 player maps I get 68-131fps with mid 80's being the average according to MSI Afterburner.
 
I would wait until the 7000 series from AMD hits and see if the 580 prices drop further. In the meantime, I'd lower some of your settings to increase your fps so the game doesn't run terribly.
 
There's always something better around the corner. Buy now and play maxed out. No reason to wait to save a few pennies.
 
Those twin 580s would last you a long time. I'm not as picky about fps as some people, but I'm playing Skyrim at 1900 x 1200 maxed out (no AA) with no problems at all on my gtx 285. I can't even picture how your single 580 is giving you issues at the same resolution!
 
danman said:
There's always something better around the corner. Buy now and play maxed out. No reason to wait to save a few pennies.
Click to expand...

Except in this case it would be silly not to wait considering the HD 7000 series is only a couple weeks away.
 
I'd say wait, turn down your AA to 2x or whatever ( really, you wont see the difference ) and you'll get a 15+20 fps boost. Save that $400 for the next card or just keep your 580, I don't see any console port coming along that will tax it. Or, if you want the absolute max settings, then SLI 580 3gb... but I think that would be a waste at 1920x1200..
 
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